2.14.25 Newsletter

The Royal Appointment, In Authoritarian News, and...Love!

💗Happy Valentine’s Day my friends! I sure love you all and thank you for supporting my work. Whether you have a valentine or not, just imagine me looking at you the way Carrie looks at a pair of Manolo’s.

👑 Royal Corner

It may be Valentine’s Day, but hate never stops when there is money to be made!

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, was busy doing it for the ‘gram and provided tons of BTS content with Prince Harry and competitors in the 2025 Invictus Games.

Naturally there were ‘rings worn to send subtle messages to the Royal family’, ‘hidden pleas for the fam. to welcome her back’, etc. Then, there was this:

Based on the footage posted to Meghan’s Instagram, “Lucy Edwards, an award-winning British TV presenter, said Meghan may have grabbed a female Invictus Games participant's wheelchair without permission during an event on Saturday.”

I watched the video and Edwards, a blind woman, doesn’t ‘accuse’ Meghan of moving a woman in a wheelchair without permission. She admits that, while it may seem like that was the case, photos and video can only tell us so much. She proceeds to say, for the purpose of the video, let’s assume she did move the woman in a wheelchair without asking as a way to discuss the limited education we have around people with disabilities. Edwards wrote in her caption that Meghan’s intentions were probably good either way, but that, “it’s important to ask someone before grabbing.”

Except if you’re Donald Trump.

I understand the argument that Edwards didn’t need to bring Meghan into this at all. She has a massive platform, couldn’t she have used another example? On the flip side, the Invictus Games is top of mind and it makes sense to use this time to have conversations around disabilities.

The article does a disservice in framing Edwards’ video, but even more so to the athlete in question, Adria Brochu, who said:

"She only helped to adjust my wheelchair for the photo, ensuring I was comfortable and included. This story doesn't reflect the genuinely happy and caring moment. I'm disappointed that this compassionate act has been misrepresented."

I’m disappointed on a meta level at Newsweek for fueling the misrepresentation instead of clarifying it. This article is written backwards with maximum intent to inflame readers who won’t read past the headline.

The headline should have led with the athlete and her clarification on Meghan moving her wheelchair. It should have opened with something like:

Adria Brochu, the Canadian athlete at the center of a viral video showing Meghan Markle moving her wheelchair to get her in a photo, speaks out.

(Go into her quote)

The footage, shared first on the Duchess of Sussex’s IG, was picked up by TV presenter and campaigner, Lucy Edwards, who said Meghan may have grabbed the Invictus Games participant’s wheelchair without permission.

In her caption, Edwards does say that Markle probably didn’t mean any harm, but that it’s important to ask before grabbing.

etc. etc.

👑 Royal Appointment

Subject Line: Something has shifted in the Princess

Credit where credit’s due: The Royal Appointment is about a working royal this week. The Princess of Wales was out and about at various royal engagements, including this very bizarre headline:

Her visit to prison yesterday underlined something I have been thinking for a few weeks now: she really is back in business.

Wait, you’ve all been telling us that these prior engagements are not a sign that The Princess of Wales is back to work! What changed?!

This is a new Kate. She’s fired up and opinionated, saying things like: “I always find it frustrating that it gets to that point”, while speaking with imprisoned women, discussing her early years project.

It was not that long ago that the Princess of Wales (or Duchess of Cambridge as she was back then) would rarely have been heard to express such a personal opinion at work.

The writer confesses that, in the past:

Some of her engagements – sorry, Your Royal Highness – were difficult to cover as a result, with few words from the Princess to bring home her points to a wider audience.

What also happened last week? Kensington Palace announced that they would no longer provide details of Kate’s outfits..mostly. Since then we’ve seen a scramble to figure out how to cover Kate. I’ll be honest, this is better than whatever this Daily Mail piece was:

A pair of trousers worn SEVEN whole times? Relatable Queen.

It was during Catherine’s engagement at the Royal Marsden Hospital that the writer noticed a shift in Kate:

As she entered each room to meet cancer patients and medics, she seemed to hold her head a little higher than she used to.

Newly confident, authoritative, and in command, the Princess knew who she wanted to talk to and where she wanted to go.

Kate walked, knew who she wanted to talk to and…where to walk?

This is deeply unserious.

I’m not making a mockery of Kate, but the coverage of her is so damn infantilizing. You have NOTHING else to write than stage directions for her?

I hope they figure something else out soon.

✍️ In Authoritarian News

The AP is in a standoff with the White House over their refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. So far AP reporters have been barred from several events, including Prime Minister of India, Modi’s, visit.

From their Stylebook:

The AP said it would continue to use Gulf of Mexico, while also noting Trump’s decision, to ensure that names of geographical features are recognizable around the world.

From the piece:

Julie Pace, AP’s senior vice president and executive editor, wrote to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on Wednesday objecting to the moves.

“The actions taken by this White House were plainly intended to punish the AP for the content of its speech,” Pace wrote. “It is among the most basic tenets of the First Amendment that the government cannot retaliate against the public or the press for what they say.”

This is stupid. This is deadly important.

If the White House can successfully block the AP—a news wire—from press events without too much blowback, they will continue to push the envelope. It’s the name of a body of water now, it’s unflattering coverage later. This is how we lose a free press, which is critical to a healthy democracy.

We certainly don’t want a Royal Rota situation on our hands.

👉🏻What I’m working on:

How to cover this moment. I’ve had so many people reach out. asking what I’m reading, how I’m sifting through the news, what to focus on, etc. In all honesty, I’m struggling with the same thing.

I think I know where to start. Maybe half the battle is just…starting. Diving in, sharing what I know and going from there. It’s how this entire (gestures around) career started. I didn’t have an extensive background on the British Royal Family or British Media, but I was curious. Plus, I knew the importance of media literacy and fair and balanced reporting. (Good pep talk!)

I started yesterday with a video about Trump’s pick to lead the Dept. of Education and the larger goal of eliminating it all together.

There was some, predictably, bad reporting, but also a bright spot that we should hold on to.

I hope you do something lovely for yourself this weekend. Stay sane. Stay off Twitter.

♥️ Happy Valentine’s Day!

-Meredith